Tribble Troubles
by killbothtwins
Summary: The Captain has a serious talk with his senior staff about breaking time travel-related rules. There are tribbles. Episode tag to s05e05 "Trials and Tribble-ations."


Captain Benjamin Sisko sat in his office, staring down his entire senior staff. Well, most of his senior staff, since Major Kira was off the hook on this one.

"Which one of you was it?" He asked the five slightly guilty faces in front of him.

"Which one was what?" Bashir asked innocently, widening his eyes at the captain. Jadzia stomped on his foot and coughed loudly.

"Which one…" Sisko said slowly. "Which one of you brought the first tribble?"

Five completely innocent faces greeted this statement, all projecting an air of "who, _me?_ "

Odo even managed the expression, although it was rare for the shapeshifter to muster up an emotion at all.

"You know taking things from the past in time travel is against the rules, sir." O'Brien told him primly.

"Tribbles are not fond of Klingons. Sir." Worf added. Sisko narrowed his eyes at him, then travelled his gaze to Dax, who was still looking entirely righteous.

" _Sir._ " She sounded offended.

"No one is willing to tell me who the perpetrator was?" The captain asked, to five faces who couldn't seem to imagine any such thing. It was probably their imaginations, but the senior staff seemed to see their captain breathe a small, if almost imperceptible sigh of relief. "You may go." Sisko said, gesturing for them to do just that.

They scrambled to get up, each knocking over a few tribbles in their haste. One of the tribbles made a sad, squeak-like noise.

As they reached the door, Sisko was surprised to see them all pause, even Worf, whose broad back could be seen taking a deep breath.

Then they spun around.

"Fine, I took it!" Five voices chorused in unison. They then all turned to look at each other.

Sisko's mouth twitched slightly. "Care to sit down and talk it out?"

They sat down. A tribble squeaked in protest when Bashir sat on it, then hissed angrily when he tried to hand it to Worf.

"Let's start with you, Doctor. Why did you feel it was appropriate to take a tribble from the past?" Sisko said, folding his hands. Julian averted his eyes to the ceiling.

"Well, I, ehm, thought it would be a _fascinating_ study on, um, reproductions of tribbles."

"And?"

"And, well, it was cute."

Sisko sighed and moved on to the next person in the row of chairs, who was sitting with one tribble in her lap and one on her shoulder. "Old man?"

Jadzia had the grace to pretend to look ashamed, at least, even if she wasn't doing a very good job. "I hadn't seen a tribble in almost a hundred years, Benjamin." She said innocently, carding her fingers through the tribble's fur. It purred happily. "I forgot."

The next person stared straight into his eyes. "Mr. Worf?"

Worf stoically cleared his throat. "I thought Major Kira might like it, sir. She did not have the opportunity to beam down to see the tribbles. The other humanoids seemed to enjoy them."

Sisko rubbed his temples. "And?"

"And she _did_ seem to enjoy it, sir."

Bashir turned a laugh into a loud cough. Jadzia patted his back, faking concern.

"Chief O'Brien." Sisko said.

"I thought Keiko and Molly might like something soft to pet."

" _And?_ "  
"And I thought it was cute, too." Miles admitted begrudgingly.

"Constable?"  
Odo opened his mouth to speak. There were three tribbles in his lap alone, and one in his hair. He looked pleased with himself, more so than any of the others.

"Never mind." Said Sisko.

Sisko surveyed his office, and Ops outside of it; there were so many tribbles that there wasn't really a place to sit or stand safely.

"You're telling me that practically my senior staff disobeyed time standards and infected my entire station with tribbles because, largely, you thought these things were _cute_."

"Yes, sir, mostly." O'Brien answered for all of them sheepishly.

Sisko's mouth twitched again, this time almost certainly an amused smile. "I will see to it that this stays out of the official report." Sisko said. "You're dismissed."

There was a scramble for the door, this time with no one stopping for confessions.

However, Dax did stop at the door. Julian tagged at her side, with O'Brien waiting after Bashir and Odo and Worf stopping too.

"Sir, you didn't _happen_ to bring home a tribble as well, did you?"

Jadzia asked slyly, grinning.

"Well, they _are_ cute." The captain smiled, and pressed the button to close the door automatically.


End file.
